A father killed his son by shaking or throwing him when he was just four weeks old, a jury has been told.

Article: Prime Minister Stefan Lofven called early polls after losing a budget vote about three months into his term.
Under the deal, Mr Lofven will follow the opposition's budget next year, although he can make some changes.
The government failed to push through its budget when the far-right Sweden Democrats sided with the opposition.
The Sweden Democrats emerged as a power broker after September's elections. The election - called for 22 March - would have been Sweden's first early poll since 1958.
Speaking during a press conference in Stockholm on Saturday, PM Lofven said that he was pleased to have reached a deal.
"Sweden has a tradition of solving difficult problems," he told reporters.
"I am happy that... Sweden can be governed."
The deal was reached between Mr Lofven's centre-left Social Democrats and Greens Alliance, and the four-party centre-right group known as Alliance.
Mr Lofven said the document, called "The December Agreement" will remain in force until 2022.
It commits the opposition to abstain from voting against the government's budget proposals starting from April 2015 onwards.
It also co-ordinates the parties' polices on pensions, defence and energy issues.
Mr Lofven's Social Democrats formed a minority government with the Greens in September but between them they have only 138 seats in the 349-seat parliament.
The Sweden Democrats became the country's third largest party, with 13% of the vote. Their main demand has been the reversal of Sweden's liberal immigration laws.
Sweden has offered permanent residence to all Syrians fleeing the conflict and has the highest rate of asylum applications per capita of any European Union country.

Summary: Sweden's left-of-centre government has reached a deal with the main opposition resulting in a minority government and avoiding the need for snap elections.
###
Article: Cardiff and the Vale, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Hywel Dda health boards now face what is known as "targeted intervention".
It is the second-highest of four levels of oversight.
This is one level below being put in special measures.
This already applies to Wales' largest health board, Betsi Cadwaladr in north Wales, which was taken under direct control in June 2015.
All three health boards, according to Health Secretary Vaughan Gething, were unable to set out convincing medium-term plans to deal with local challenges.
The organisations are being monitored against a one-year improvement plan.
The decision, announced in a written statement to AMs, follows a twice-yearly meeting between the Welsh Government, Wales Audit Office and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales.
Meanwhile the Welsh Ambulance Service's escalation level has been downgraded to the lowest level of oversight - following what the Welsh Government describes as "considerable progress" made by the trust.
All other health organisations in Wales remain at their previous "escalation levels."
According to Mr Gething, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg - which is responsible for hospitals in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend -  in addition to not having an approved three year plan,  faced "continuing challenges in respect to unscheduled care and cancer."
The health board said it had made "significant progress" and made improvements in many areas "but recognise that we are currently facing a number of specific challenges about how to best deliver sustainable services that meet the increasing needs of our population".
Although Cardiff and Vale health board's performance recently improved in "key areas" - the health secretary said it "did not provide me with the necessary confidence that the organisation has a deliverable and affordable plan for the next three years."
Meanwhile Hywel Dda "faces a number of long-standing challenges" - which needs a "strategic solution" to make sure its services are sustainable"
There are four levels of escalation in the Welsh NHS which...

Summary: Three health boards in Wales have been placed under an increased level of scrutiny and control by the Welsh Government due to doubts about their ability to tackle their challenges.
###
Article: Many schools were evacuated as a precaution, meaning some GCSE, A-level and Higher exams had to be abandoned.
The BBC News website answers some of the key questions on the issue.
Yes. There is a procedure for schools to follow in the event of an emergency such as a fire or bomb alert during public examinations.
This is set out by the Joint Council for Qualifications, which represent the seven largest UK exam providers.
Exam invigilators are advised to stop candidates from writing, collect the attendance register (in order to ensure all candidates are present) and evacuate the examination room.
Students should be told to leave all question papers and scripts in the exam room and must leave the exam hall in silence.
Staff must make sure that the candidates are supervised as closely as possible while they are out of the exam hall, to make sure there is no discussion about the examination.
Invigilators should make a note of the time of the interruption and how long it lasted and allow the candidates the full working time set for the examination.
The guidance says if there are only a few candidates, schools should consider the possibility of taking the candidates (with question papers and scripts) to another place to finish the examination.
Schools have to make a full report of the incident and of the action taken and send this to the relevant exam board.
Students whose public exams were disrupted can rest assured that the situation will be fed back to the examiners. Schools will document how the exams were affected and send this to the exam boards. The boards will make any adjustments as they see fit, on a case-by-case basis.
A spokeswoman for the AQA exam board said: "We need to look at each case on an individual basis because there are a range of ways in which students might have been affected - they might have taken all, part or none of the exam, or been affected by the incident in different ways.
"Once we know the full circumstances from the schools, we can decide on the best course of action. In the...

Summary: Hundreds of pupils across the UK have faced disruption to exams following a spate of hoax calls.
###
Article: The white goose, known as Grumpy Gertie, was well-known in Sandon and appears on the village sign.
Villagers claimed he was shot at the pond on 21 February by a gang in a 4x4.
Police had said there was no evidence of a shooting as the goose was buried before they arrived. The body is now with the Royal Veterinary College.
The post-mortem examination is expected to take place at the end of the week, a police spokesman added.
More on this and other stories from Hertfordshire
Gertie would often be seen in a disused phone box, which villagers said he had made his "home".
It is now filled with letters, flowers, a lantern and children's pictures of Gertie.
Gay Ayton said: "He was a real character - he was hand-reared here and thought he was a duck.
"You'd see him in the middle of the road stopping traffic so the ducks could get by."
The RSPCA, which is investigating with police, said it was appalled by the suspected shooting, which it described as senseless and reckless.
It is illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to intentionally kill or injure any wild bird.
Grumpy Gertie's fate featured on BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show on Friday, when a Peter Hunt from Eastbourne in Sussex texted in to offer Â£250,000 to catch the "vile killers".

Summary: The body of a goose that was allegedly shot dead at point-blank range in Hertfordshire has been exhumed by police for a post-mortem examination.
###
Article: How important are trade unions to the Labour Party?
The Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement at the beginning of the 20th Century when, following a special trade union conference, the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) was formed out of unions and other left wing organisations.
The LRC sponsored the first two Labour MPs elected in 1900.
Today many Labour MPs come from trade union backgrounds or have close links to unions. In fact, you must be a member of a trade union to be eligible to seek selection as a Labour candidate, unless for some reason you have been prevented from doing so.
The old system of direct trade union sponsorship of MPs no longer exists, but many Labour MPs receive substantial donations to their constituency party.
What's changed?
In 2013, former leader Ed Miliband proposed historic reforms to the relationship between the party and the unions following a row over candidate selection in Falkirk.
A special Labour Party conference passed party reforms in March 2014, bringing in one member one vote for Labour leadership elections and opt-in for trade union affiliate Labour members.
The old electoral college, which gave unions, party members and MPs/MEPs a third of the vote each, was abolished.
For the next leader, voting will take place on a one-member-one-vote basis in a single section comprising Labour Party members, affiliated trade union supporters and registered supporters.
How much money does Labour get from the trade unions?
The trade unions provide the majority of recorded donations to Labour and in the past it has been income Labour could rely upon.
In 2014 unions donated around £11m to Labour, accounting for about 58% of total donations received that year. Its top donors were Unite, Unison and Usdaw.
The Electoral Commission's donation figures include the affiliation fees that trade unions pay to the Labour Party in return for the privileges of affiliated membership for themselves and their members.
For a union to affiliate nationally, it must pay £3 from its political...

Summary: Labour's relationship with the trade unions is under the spotlight again as the party's leadership contest gets under way and following criticism by outgoing Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy of the influence of the Unite union.
###
Article: Liam Laverick, 25, from Beeford Grove in Hull has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of his four-week old son, Tommy Lee.
The baby was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary on 23 September 2014 and died later at Leeds General Infirmary.
Tommy Lee had been left in the sole care of Mr Laverick when the baby became ill, Hull Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC said in his opening statement Tommy Lee was left in the care of Mr Laverick at his flat on Linnaeus Street, Hull.
He also told the court Mr Laverick had killed his son by shaking or throwing him.
The jury was shown CCTV footage of Mr Laverick taking Tommy Lee to a relative's house to find the baby's mother, Kelly Whitworth, before the couple ran with the child to the nearby Hull Royal Infirmary.
Mr Laverick gave different accounts of what had happened, including saying that he had fallen over while carrying the child, the prosecution said.
A recording of Mr Laverick speaking to Tommy Lee's mother at a police station and made without their knowledge was also played in court.
In it Mr Laverick described falling over in the hallway of their flat while carrying the baby.
The forensic pathologist who carried out the post mortem examination on the body of Tommy Lee said he had suffered serious bleeding around his brain and the back of his eyes.
The case continues.

Summary:


A woman who was allegedly raped and abused by eight men in Rotherham changed from a "lovely girl to an animal", her mother told jurors.

Article: The charity said it issued more than 130,000 supplies of nutritionally-balanced food in 2015/16, up from 117,689 in the previous year.
Its new statistics suggest that food bank growth has slowed, however.
Last year the charity reported that food bank use had increased by two thirds on the previous 12 months.
The Trussell Trust said each of its emergency parcels contained enough food for 10 meals.
Everyone who received a food parcel was referred to the food bank by professionals such as a welfare rights adviser, a social worker or a health visitor.
Of the 113,726 handed out across Scotland last year, 43,952 went to children.
The charity said that it had evidence to suggest that, on average, people needed two food bank referrals in one year.
Its network of food banks increased to 51 last year with the controversial opening of a new facility in Dumfries by Scotland's only Conservative MP David Mundell.
Ewan Gurr, Scotland network manager for The Trussell Trust, said the figures highlighted an "alarming" number of people who were unable to buy food.
The charity's data showed that the number of referrals due to a low income increased by 2,845 on 2014/15.
However it said benefits delays were the main reason people turned to food banks - they made up a total of 26% of all referrals in Scotland.
Mr Gurr added: "In Scotland, we have heard from people using food banks due to the heart-breaking reality of losing a job in the oil and steel industries, others feeling a sense of despair after delays to a Universal Credit payment and some who have experienced sanctions that have impacted on their physical and mental wellbeing."

Summary: The number of three-day emergency food parcels handed out by The Trussell Trust in Scotland increased by more than 13% in the last year.
###
Article: The US city is facing a housing crisis, exacerbated by landlords renting out their property to visiting tourists rather than residents.
Under the rejected Proposition F, landlords would have been fined if they rented out their homes short-term for more than 75 days a year.
The result of the poll was closer than anticipated.
AirBnB lets landlords advertise property for short-term rentals, often undercutting hotels.
Proposition F would have seriously affected its operations in San Francisco, so the company spent $8m (Â£5.2m) on a "No on Prop F" campaign.
The "Yes" campaign, which lost by about 13,500 votes had just $1m (Â£650,000) funding.
Proposition F has been defeated, but despite the huge amount of money invested by AirBnB, the result was still pretty tight.
In fact, the result was closer than the "Yes" camp had imagined.
Dale Carlson, the "Yes" spokesman, had expected to be "completely blown out" in the vote.
In the end, the No supporters only won with 55% of the vote, and that isn't by much.
Given that regulators here now plan to use different legislative methods to limit AirBnB in San Francisco, this result may actually play in their favour.
Read more: San Fran votes on â€˜AirBnB law'

Summary: San Francisco voters have rejected a proposal to limit short-term rentals offered by AirBnB and similar services.
###
Article: GMB shop stewards unanimously voted for industrial action in protest at the removal of bank holidays from contracts and changes to flexi-time working.
The changes include six public holidays being replaced with annual leave days.
GMB Scotland will ballot members working for the council over the next month with a view to holding a minimum two-day strike in either May or June.
The union claims staff who regularly receive enhanced payments for working the set holidays will lose out by Â£500 a year on average.
GMB regional organiser Benny Rankin said: "GMB Scotland's members have consistently told the council that we will oppose these changes.
"This was never an empty threat, and if the council ever thought it was, this will be yet another error in a long line of errors from this administration.
"Our members are determined to see this fight through to the end. It is now up to the employer, Glasgow City Council, to come to the table and have meaningful discussions with the trade unions rather than provide sounds bites without any substance."
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "We are disappointed that GMB Scotland has opted for this course of action.
"The council is dealing with an unprecedented cut to our budget which means we must find Â£130m of savings in the next two years.
"We will continue to work with the union to find an agreed way forward."

Summary: A strike by Glasgow City Council staff over changes to public holiday entitlement has moved a step closer.
###
Article: It follows a £330m deal announced last month involving Liberty House and Simec to take over the Rio Tinto site.
Their plans include creating an aluminium wheel manufacturing facility, and a further 300 jobs directly, with another 300 in the supply chain.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited the site on Monday.
Liberty said it aimed to protect the existing 170 jobs in Lochaber and expand metal manufacturing and downstream engineering there.
The purchase by Liberty and Simec - both members of the GFG Alliance - includes the hydro power plants at Fort William and Kinlochleven and more than 100,000 acres of land hosting the water catchment area, including Ben Nevis' foothills.
The Scottish government is supporting the plans by guaranteeing the power purchases of the aluminium smelter.
Ms Sturgeon said the proposals reinforced the link between the smelter and the hydro station at Fort William.
She described it as a "historic day" for the smelter and said she looked forward to hundreds of new jobs in the area in the coming years.
She added: "Today is the start of an exciting new chapter in Scotland's manufacturing story and the Scottish government and its agencies will keep working with Sanjeev Gupta and the GFG Alliance to help them realise their enterprising vision for Lochaber."
Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of Liberty House Group and of the GFG Alliance strategic board, said: "We hope this day will come to be recognised as the start of a bright new future for Highland industry.
"It puts Lochaber right at the heart of our vision for sustainable and integrated local production that can revitalise British manufacturing."
Mr Gupta and Ms Sturgeon were among those who attended the announcement who wore a bindi, a symbol of Mr Gupta's Hindu faith.
Jay Hambro, chief investment officer of the GFG Alliance, and chief executive of Simec energy & mining divisions said: "These hydro-power stations have enough capacity to power around 83,000 homes.
"Today Lochaber provides the power required to produce 47,000 tonnes...

Summary: Plans to create up to 600 jobs and invest £120m at the site of the UK's last remaining aluminium smelter yard at Fort William have been announced.
###
Article: Jeffrey Davies, 45, of Aberdare, was serving in the Rhondda Valley when he raped his victims in 2002 and 2003.
Cardiff Crown Court heard he was dismissed from the force in 2013 after being convicted of other sexual assaults.
IPCC Commissioner for Wales, Jan Williams, has said Davies was a "sex offender hiding within the police".
The court heard Davies targeted vulnerable women, telling one of his victims the rape "would make her feel better" as he attacked her on the Bwlch mountain in Rhondda Cynon Taff in 2002.
He had met her through his work with South Wales Police and she had believed he was taking her to a police station before he drove to the dark mountain, the court was told.
He raped the second woman a year later in her own home.
Prosecutor Susan Ferrier said both women suffered in silence for more than a decade amid fears they would not be believed.
However, the pair decided to come forward after reading news reports that married father-of-two Davies had been jailed in 2013 following separate sex attacks on other women.
His Honour Judge Jonathan Furness QC told Davies he had not shown "a shred of remorse" and believed he was "untouchable".
Davies will serve half of his sentence before being released on license. He was also banned from working with children.
The former detective was found guilty of the rapes last month after an investigation by his former force, managed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
Speaking after his conviction, IPCC Commissioner for Wales Ms Williams said Davies "committed fundamental breaches of the trust placed in him as a serving officer".
Ch Supt Dorian Lloyd, head of South Wales Police professional standards department, added: "Jeffrey Davies occupied a position of great trust within the community he served, but he betrayed that trust with his criminal behaviour."

Summary: A former South Wales Police detective has been jailed for 18 years after he was found guilty of raping two women.
###
Article: The witness also said her family had been forced to move to Spain to escape her daughter's alleged abusers.
Sheffield Crown Court also heard how police lost tapes of an interview with defendant Sageer Hussain in 2003.
Eight men, including Mr Hussain, deny sexually abusing three girls between 1999 and 2003.
The mother of one of the alleged victims said in a statement: "Her character changed from a lovely girl to an animal. She became horrible."
She said at one stage she discovered a mobile phone in her daughter's bedroom and rang a number stored under the name 'Waleed'.
She said a man picked up the phone and said "I ain't done owt, I ain't touched her. It isn't me".
When she asked her daughter about the phone she said she burst into tears and said "They're raping me, they're raping me".
She told the court after her daughter went to the police in 2003 her family were repeatedly threatened.
"We were so distraught that we sold the business and the home and moved to Spain," she said.
Det Con Andy Stephanek, of South Yorkshire Police, told the court the force had lost the tape of an interview with Mr Hussain when he was first questioned about the allegations.
He said it appeared that "due to the passage of time they've been destroyed".
The trial continues.

Summary:

Article: {{document}}

Summary: ||| {{target}}


A school has changed its name from "Isis" because the word has become associated with the so-called Islamic State.

Article: The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) also found this group were likely to earn less and marry women with lower incomes.
It said the trends made poverty more likely to continue from one generation to the next and reduce social mobility.
The government said it wanted to "build an economy that works for everyone".
Since coming to power, Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to do more for families who are "just about managing".
Among other things, she has said it is vital to tackle the shorter life expectancy for those born poor, and the lower chances of white working class boys going to university.
However, with price increases outstripping wages since the Brexit vote, many workers are getting poorer on average in real terms.
Moreover, average real wages in the UK are still lower than they were before the financial crisis 10 years ago.
The IFS based its findings on the most recent long-term study available, which surveyed people born in 1970 and followed them as they got older.
It found that more than a third of men aged 42 from the poorest fifth of families did not live with a partner in 2012. That compared with only a seventh from high-income backgrounds.
It said men from disadvantaged backgrounds experienced lower rates of marriage and higher rates of divorce.
It also looked at men in couples. It found that the partners of those from richer backgrounds earned more than 70% more than the partners of men from poorer families.
Chris Belfield, a research economist at the IFS, said: "As well as having higher earnings, those from richer families are more likely to be in work, more likely to have a partner and more likely to have a higher-earning partner than those from less well-off backgrounds.
"And all these inequalities have been widening over time."
The IFS said it was "well known" that the sons of richer parents tended to go on to earn more.
However, it said the earnings gap with those from less well-off backgrounds was widening.
In 2012, employed 42-year-old men whose parents were among the richest fifth...

Summary: Men from poor backgrounds are twice as likely to be single in their early 40s than those from rich families, research suggests.
###
Article: Castrillo Matajudios has now reverted to its previous title - Castrillo Mota de Judios ("Jew's Hill Fort").
Some 50 people who live there voted to change the name last year.
The controversial name may have been adopted in Medieval times by Catholic converts from Judaism keen to show their loyalty to the state.
Castrillo Mota de Judios has a long Jewish heritage - it was founded  in 1035 by Jews fleeing persecution.
"The phrase 'Matajudios' did not correspond to the way this village thinks or acts these days, nor with our village flag, which has the Star of David on it," the village's mayor, Lorenzo Rodriguez, told the Independent after last year's vote.
The name change was approved by the regional government of Castilla y Leon, Associated Press reported.
Spain still has a village called Valle de Matamoros, or "Kill Moors valley" -  a reference to the North African invaders who conquered parts of southern Spain, although there are no plans to change its name.

Summary: The name of a Spanish village that translates as "Fort Kill Jews" has been changed following a referendum and local government approval.
###
Article: There are already 400 operating across 11 bus routes in the capital and by May there will be a total of 800.
They are the Marmite of buses; some love them, some hate them.
Some have conductors (that don't take fares), and you can hop on and hop off the rear platform in traffic. On some you can't.
Critics think it would have been cheaper to buy hybrids off the peg, others think they are worth the premium.
It is one of the few areas where more staff have been taken on.
Transport-wise, they are a bit of an eccentric anomaly.
There have been problems with the on-board cooling leading to extremely uncomfortable conditions upstairs, and now I've learnt there have been problems with the batteries.
They have not been working correctly and the initial batch of batteries is having to be replaced.
Transport for London (TfL) bosses tell me the original Routemasters suffered various problems initially and compared to them they think this version has performed pretty well. The faulty batteries are being replaced under warranty.
Mike Weston, TfL's director of buses, said: "The New Routemaster is the cleanest and greenest bus of its class and there is absolutely no problem with its hybrid system.
"However, as part of the warranty provided by the manufacturer, a programme is under way to check and, if necessary, upgrade batteries on some of the fleet.
"If the batteries stop working properly the engine runs for longer to generate the electrical power needed.
"The battery packs are being upgraded as soon as possible and within the warranty period, at no cost to TfL or the taxpayer."

Summary: The march of the New Bus for London - or New Routemaster - as it has been rebranded, continues.
###
Article: Norman Davies, 56, took the Patterdale terrier for a walk in May to a secluded area before holding her collar and cutting her with a kitchen knife.
Misty managed to escape and was found the next day before being taken to the vets, who were able to save her.
Davies, of Grafton Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, admitted causing unnecessary suffering at an earlier hearing before magistrates in Chester.
He admitted in an interview to slitting the three-year-old dog's throat because she was "urinating inside", the RSPCA said.
Davies has also been banned from keeping animals for life.
RSPCA inspector Lisa Lupson said: "Misty would have been absolutely terrified and it would have been excruciatingly painful for her.
"Davies cut clean through her skin but missed her main arteries. If Misty had not managed to get free when she did then she may not be here today - she had an incredibly lucky escape."
Misty has since been rehomed and is "making progress", she added.

Summary: A man who slit his pet dog's throat has been jailed for 18 weeks.
###
Article: The regulators said they had "serious concerns" about the changes made to WhatsApp's privacy policy, which made the sharing possible.
In a letter to the messaging firm, they asked it to stop sharing data until it was clear that European privacy rules were not being broken.
WhatsApp said it was working with data watchdogs to address their concerns.
In August this year, WhatsApp revealed that it would be sharing more information with Facebook, which bought the messaging app in early 2014 for $19bn (Â£16bn).
WhatsApp justified the change by saying this would mean suggestions about who people should connect with would be "more relevant".
But many criticised its decision because of earlier pledges that WhatsApp had made to remain independent of Facebook.
Commissioner: UK 'must avoid data protection Brexit'
Facebook told to stop collecting German WhatsApp data
WhatsApp users to receive adverts
WhatsApp and Facebook data sharing plan being investigated
The decision to share information prompted investigations by data protection bodies across Europe. Now, the Article 29 Working Party, the collective association of data watchdogs, said more work needed to be done to ensure regional rules governing privacy were not broken when information passed from one firm to another.
The Working Party said this work had to be done because the sharing involved processing data in ways that were not in the privacy policy operating when people signed up.
The group called for data sharing to be halted while the terms of the deal were scrutinised.
A WhatsApp spokeswoman said: "We've had constructive conversations, including before our update, and we remain committed to respecting applicable law."

Summary: WhatsApp has been warned by European privacy watchdogs about sharing user data with parent company Facebook.
###
Article: Isis Academy in Oxford said it had rebranded as "Iffley Academy" to protect its "reputation, integrity and image".
The name 'Isis' was originally chosen as the school is near to the section of the River Thames of the same name.
Formerly Iffley Mead School, it became Isis Academy in 2013.
A statement issued by the school said it had changed name following "the unforeseen rise of ISIS (also known as ISIL and the Islamic State) and related global media coverage of the activities of the group".
"Our priority is to remove the detrimental impact which the name 'Isis' had on pupils, their families and our staff."
Last year a language school in the city removed Isis from its name for the same reason.
The Isis is the name given to the part of the River Thames above Iffley Lock in Oxford. It is also the name of the goddess wife of the god Osiris in Egyptian beliefs.

Summary:


Recruitment giant Hays has said the UK job market weakened "significantly" around the time of the EU referendum, but it is too early to judge the long-term impact of the vote.

Article: The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) study found the risk of heart disease fell by about 30% when subjects were asked to lower blood pressure beyond current recommendations.
The results were so conclusive that the NIH ended the study a year early.
Experts have disagreed on how to control blood pressure as people age.
"More intensive management of high blood pressure in people 50 years and older can save lives and reduce cardiovascular complications such as heart attacks," said Dr. Gary Gibbons, director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which sponsored the study.
The current standard for systolic blood pressure - the greater of the two numbers that measure blood pressure - is 140mmHg. The diastolic standard is 80mmHg.
However, researchers in the study adjusted participants' medication so their systolic pressure became 120mmHg, achieving big reductions in heart attacks, heart failures and strokes.
Systolic blood pressure is measured when the heart muscle muscle is working. Diastolic blood pressure is measured when the heart muscle is resting and refilling with blood.
It is too early to know if the study will change the current guidelines. Researchers advised people to discuss any changes to their blood pressure with their doctors.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), high blood pressure can cause heart disease and stroke, which are two of the leading causes of death in the US.
About 70 million adults in the US - or one in three Americans - have high blood pressure, the CDC says.

Summary: New research has shown that aggressive treatment of high blood pressure can significantly reduce risks of heart disease and death in people over 50.
###
Article: In June 1815, the Duke of Wellington sent a dispatch to tell Britain about the victory.
Major Harry Percy took it by boat to Broadstairs and then by fast carriage through Kent to London.
A replica horse-drawn post chaise visited the three places in Kent where Major Percy changed horses.
The route included Faversham and Sittingbourne on Saturday.
Major Percy also changed horses in Rochester but the carriage then visited Medway's Armed Forces Day at Great Lines Heritage Park, Gillingham.
New Waterloo Dispatch chairman Peter Warwick said the carriage would visit Walmer Castle, which was where the Duke of Wellington died and where he was also Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
The final Waterloo dispatch was being presented to the current Lord Warden, Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Boyce, on Sunday at Walmer at the end of this year's celebrations.
Following the victory of the Duke of Wellington's allied forces over Napoleon's French army, Major Percy set out from Belgium carrying the letter written by the Duke relaying news from the battlefield to an expectant nation.
But the ship carrying the dispatch began to drift in the Channel, resulting in the men having to row the 20 miles to shore at Broadstairs.
From there, the dispatch was taken by carriage to the Prince Regent, who was at a dinner party in London.
Once there, the Prince Regent initially thought Major Percy - who was still covered in blood from the fighting - was bearing bad news.
But after Wellington's victory was announced, guests rushed into the street to celebrate.

Summary: A horse-drawn carriage has been touring Kent in the finale of national celebrations to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.
###
Article: Media playback is not supported on this device
Ali, who is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time, died aged 74 of "septic shock due to unspecified natural causes" last Friday.
On the eve of his funeral in Louisville, Kentucky, Haye called for him to be honoured by the UK.
"I believe Muhammad Ali is the perfect recipient," said Haye, 35.
Haye started a petition in February to get Ali an honorary knighthood, awarded to recognise non-British citizens who have made major contributions to the UK.
"Whilst it is a huge shame this did not happen when he was alive, to award it posthumously in honour of the incredible legacy he leaves would be perfectly fitting," he added.
World leaders will be among thousands attending Friday's procession and memorial service in Louisville, where Ali was born in 1942.
Former US President Bill Clinton and actor Billy Crystal are also set to speak, though current US President Barack Obama will miss the memorial.
Meanwhile, Britain's former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, who will help carry Ali's coffin, told BBC Sport he was "shocked" as well as "honoured" to be asked.
"I just want to make sure everything goes well. He was my hero, he inspired me just by being confident.
"His legacy is not just to sport, it is bigger than sport. Ali is the father of boxing."

Summary: Muhammad Ali should be given a posthumous honorary knighthood, according to Britain's former two-weight world champion David Haye.
###
Article: The first to hit the highway will be a Toyota Prius modified by search firm Google, which is leading the way in driverless car technology.
Its first drive included a spin down Las Vegas's famous strip.
Other car companies are also seeking self-driven car licences in Nevada.
The car uses video cameras mounted on the roof, radar sensors and a laser range finder to "see" other traffic.
Engineers at Google have previously tested the car on the streets of California, including crossing San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge.
For those tests, the car remained manned at all times by a trained driver ready to take control if the software failed.
According to software engineer Sebastian Thrun, the car has covered 140,000 miles with no accidents, other than a bump at traffic lights from a car behind.
Bruce Breslow, director of Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles, says he believes driverless vehicles are the "cars of the future".
Nevada changed its laws to allow self-driven cars in March. The long-term plan is to license members of the public to drive such cars.
Google's car has been issued with a red licence plate to make it recognisable. The plate features an infinity sign next to the number 001.
Other states, including California, are planning similar changes.
"The vast majority of vehicle accidents are due to human error," said California state Senator Alex Padilla, when he introduced the legislation.
"Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analysing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely."

Summary: Driverless cars will soon be a reality on the roads of Nevada after the state approved America's first self-driven vehicle licence.
###
Article: The group says new findings about the virus make it "unethical" for the games to go ahead in an open letter to the World Health Organization.
They call on the WHO to revisit its guidance on Zika, which is linked to serious birth defects.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in May it sees no reason to delay or move the games due to Zika.
The outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease began in Brazil a year ago, but now more than 60 countries and territories have continuing transmission.
While Zika's symptoms are mild, in the letter the experts say it causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and may also cause a rare and sometimes fatal neurological syndrome in adults.
The letter is signed by 150 international scientists, doctors and medical ethicists from such institutions as Oxford University and Harvard and Yale universities in the United States.
They cite the failure of a mosquito-eradication programme in Brazil, and the country's "weakened" health system as reasons to postpone or move the Olympics in "the name of public health".
Microcephaly: Why it is not the end of the world
What you need to know Key questions answered about the virus and its spread
Travel advice Countries affected and what you should do
The mosquito behind spread of virus What we know about the insect
Abortion dilemma Laws and practices in Catholic Latin America
"An unnecessary risk is posed when 500,000 foreign tourists from all countries attend the Games, potentially acquire that strain, and return home to places where it can become endemic," the letter says.
The biggest risk, it adds, is if athletes contracted the virus and returned home to poor countries that had not yet suffered a Zika outbreak.
They also express concern the WHO has a conflict of interest through its partnership with the IOC.
The Rio Olympics take place between 5-21 August.
The WHO, which has declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency, is yet to comment on the letter.
Several public health experts had previously warned that having...

Summary: More than 100 leading scientists say the Rio Olympics should be moved or postponed over the Zika outbreak.
###
Article: The company also said it had seen "no evidence" of any impact of the vote in markets outside the UK.
Its comments came as it reported an 11% rise in pre-tax profits to Â£173m for the year to 30 June.
Its profits were driven by strong trading in Asia and the rest of Europe.
In the UK, Hays said net fees were flat, with trading "more challenging" towards the end of its financial year, which coincided with the run-up to the EU referendum.
Conditions were particularly challenging in local government and healthcare markets in the UK.
Hays also said conditions were tough in banking in the City of London, and there were weakening trends in the construction and property business towards the end of the financial year.
Hays chief executive Alistair Cox said: "Following the EU referendum, there is increased uncertainty in the UK market, but we have seen no evidence of any impact elsewhere.
"It is too early to tell what the longer term impact may be and as ever, we will monitor activity levels closely."
Kean Marden, an analyst at Jefferies, said: "In construction and property, London and larger corporates have been most impacted. To date, Hays has seen no evidence of contagion into Europe."
"We are mindful that July and August are seasonally quiet months for the industry and September (which can be one of the largest revenue contributors of the year) will provide more meaningful insight."
The UK comprises about a third of Hays' business.  It employs about 9,200 people across 33 countries.
In the Asia Pacific region net fees grew by 4%, with Australia up 5%, boosted by strong public sector growth.
In continental Europe and the rest of the world, net fees increased by 15%.

Summary:


A woman jailed for embezzling more than £1.3m from her employers has been ordered to pay back nearly £600,000.

Article: The Walthamstow section of the road in north-east of the city had the worst traffic fumes, the study said.
Oxford Street ranked in the worst 15 for its estimated levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
Diesel vehicles are responsible for up to 30 times more emissions than petrol vehicles, Clean Air in London said.
The campaign group's study called for diesels to be banned from London's most polluted streets by 2020.
Clean Air for London said the mayor's office released the pollution data after they had turned down three freedom of information requests and Clean Air for London used EU legislation to force the mayor's office to release it.
Of any capital city in Europe, London has the highest levels of NO2, the group said.
•Benzene: A406 (North Circular Road), A118, A1055, A40 and A282
•NO2: A406, A118, A1055, Alfred's Way in East Ham and Barking (A13) and A13
•NOx: A282 (Dartford Crossing), A406, A118, Alfred's Way (A13) and A40 (Oxford Street)
•Particulate Matter 2.5: A406, A1055, A40, A118 and A4202 (Park Lane)
•Particulate Matter 10: A406, A1055, A40, A118 and A4202 (Park Lane)
Tonnes per kilometre per year, 2012; (Source: Clean Air in London)
Clean Air in London founder Simon Birkett said: "Ultimately, the only answer is for London to eliminate completely deadly diesel exhaust from the most polluted parts of London by 2020.
"If London knuckles down and cracks the diesel problem, it could be leading the world fighting air pollution as it did 60 years ago after the great smog."
The North Circular (A406) had the highest emission rates of four out of five of the pollutants measured in the study, while the Dartford Crossing (A282) had the highest emission rate of nitrogen oxide (NOx),
Mr Birkett said it was "staggering" Oxford Street and Brompton Road - two of the busiest for shoppers, were in the top 15 worst locations in London in 2012 for emissions of NO2.
He said the levels of NO2 on these streets were 2.5 times the limits set in World Health Organisation guidelines.
He called on the mayor to follow in the...

Summary: The North Circular has been named London's most polluted road in a study carried out for the mayor.
###
Article: But a criminal probe is indeed continuing into alleged corruption at Brazil's largest business.
A number of directors at state-run Petrobras are accused of taking bribes from construction companies, in return for awarding them lucrative contracts.
Public prosecutors and federal police claim that bribes of up to 5% of contract values were being skimmed off.
And it is further alleged that some of these funds were funnelled to officials in the ruling coalition of the Workers' Party and Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.
In the wake of the continuing investigation, the federal prosecutor's office has launched a three-month, economy-wide anti-corruption campaign, including increased punishments for those found guilty, and improvements to the recovery of the proceeds of crime.
But as the Petrobras scandal continues to dominate the headlines in Brazil, how much of a corruption problem does the country have?
The Petrobras investigation, named Operation Lava Jato (or Car Wash in English), may be the biggest corruption probe in Brazil's history, but it is far from the first.
Instead for many commentators, corruption is endemic and institutionalised in Brazil.
Take the case of former billionaire Eike Batista, once the richest man in the country.
He fell from grace last year after his energy, mining and shipbuilding empire collapsed, and he was charged with insider trading and market manipulation, charges he denies.
Standing trial this year, the case was suspended back in February after the presiding judge - who had ordered the seizure of 1.5bn reals ($388m; Â£252m) of the businessman's assets - was found to be driving one of Mr Batista's luxury cars.
Separately, Mr Batista, 58, who was once worth as much as $30bn (Â£20bn), was fined 1.4m Brazilian reals in March by regulators for failing to alert investors about the imminent takeover of his EBX Group.
Meanwhile, both Brazilian investigators, and the US's FBI, are continuing to investigate allegations of corruption at last year's World Cup in Brazil.
"Unfortunately,...

Summary: When Petrobras was named the most ethical global oil and gas company in 2008, few would have imagined that the company would now find itself at the centre of the biggest corruption investigation in Brazilian history.
###
Article: The Commons International Development Committee said dependable tax revenues were a far better route out of poverty than reliance on overseas aid.
In a report, it said supporting more efficient tax collection represented "excellent value" for UK taxpayers.
The UK spent £7.8bn on aid in 2011 and this is set to rise to £11bn by 2015.
The government welcomed the report and said it was "firmly committed to helping developing countries access more sustainable sources of revenue".
Amid cuts in other departments, the foreign aid budget is being protected to help the UK meet its target of spending 0.7% of national income on aid by 2013.
The cross-party committee said an efficient and transparent tax system was of "fundamental importance" to a country's economic and social development.
It urged ministers to support the authorities in developing nations to improve the collection rates of income tax, VAT and local property taxes and to ensure governing elites paid their fair share.
"If developing countries are to escape from aid dependency, and from poverty more broadly, it is imperative that their revenue authorities are able to collect taxes effectively," the committee's chairman, Lib Dem MP Malcolm Bruce said.
"The aim of development work is to enable developing countries to escape from over-reliance on aid.
"Supporting revenue authorities is one of the best ways of doing this: it represents excellent value for money, both for the countries concerned and for UK taxpayers."
In their report, the MPs expressed concern that recent changes to tax rules affecting UK-owned companies operating exclusively abroad could make it easier for them to use tax havens and reduce their tax liability in developing countries.
Aid agencies have estimated this could cost developing countries billions in lost tax revenues and the committee said the government should consider reversing the changes "as a matter of urgency".
"The government is committed to supporting economic growth in developing countries to reduce their dependency on aid....

Summary: The UK should give more priority to helping the poorest countries collect their taxes as part of its foreign aid strategy, MPs have suggested.
###
Article: Under the terms of the deal, the two businesses will be run in a joint venture called Penguin Random House.
Bertelsmann will own 53% of the joint venture, while Pearson will own 47%.
The two firms said last week that they were discussing a deal. A report at the weekend also said News Corporation was planning a bid for Penguin.
The Sunday Times reported that News Corp - which owns publisher HarperCollins - was prepared to make a "substantial cash offer" for Penguin, expected to be about £1bn.
The tie-up between Penguin and Random House marks the first deal between the world's big six publishers. The others are Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. It would bring together the publishers of the Fifty Shades series and Jamie Oliver's cookbooks.
When news of the talks emerged last week, industry observers said that such deals were inevitable as firms sought to adapt to the changing publishing landscape. They are being hit hard by the proliferation of ebooks and the closure of some traditional High Street book retailers.
The rapid take-up of ebooks means publishers are trying to bolster their negotiating strength, most notably with Amazon.
Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino, who is leaving the firm at the end of the year, said: "Penguin is a successful, highly-respected and much-loved part of Pearson. This combination with Random House... will greatly enhance its fortunes and its opportunities.
"Together, the two publishers will be able to share a large part of their costs, to invest more for their author and reader constituencies and to be more adventurous in trying new models in this exciting, fast-moving world of digital books and digital readers."
John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of Penguin, will be chairman of the merged group, with Random House boss Markus Dohle becoming chief executive.
Based on recent results, combining the two firms will create a business with annual revenues of about £2.5bn and about one-quarter of both the UK and US book markets.
In 2011, Random...

Summary: Publisher Pearson says it has agreed a deal with German media group Bertelsmann to combine their Penguin and Random House businesses.
###
Article: The union is opposed to plans to increase the number of driver-only services, arguing that guards should be in control of operating doors.
Scotrail said no formal proposals had been put forward and it would work with the RMT to try to find a way forward.
The ballot was announced after talks failed to resolve the dispute.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "Any extension of driver-only operation is a clear attack on our members' hard-earned terms and conditions.
"RMT members should not have to face the risk of their role and responsibilities being reduced and undermined.
"There is also a very real threat to passengers of watering down and wiping out the safety-critical role of the guard on ScotRail services. That is a lethal gamble with basic rail safety."
He added: "RMT is in no doubt that our members will stand together and demonstrate the strength of feeling across the ScotRail network during this dispute. The union remains available for further talks."
Phil Verster, managing director of the ScotRail Alliance, said: "We have been informed by the RMT that they intend to ballot members for industrial action regarding driver-controlled operation.
"No formal proposals have taken place, and we are still at the stage of considering all options.
"We are keen to continue working with the RMT to find a constructive way forward as soon as possible, and one which will not affect our customers."

Summary: Scotrail guards who are members of the RMT union are to be balloted on industrial action in a row over driver-only trains.
###
Article: Jacqueline McPhie, 46, took the money while vice president for finance at Altus Intervention in Aberdeen between March 2013 and April 2014.
McPhie, of Arbroath, admitted embezzlement and was jailed for three years and four months in July.
At the High Court in Edinburgh, she was ordered to pay back £587,434 through her "realisable assets."
She was given six months to pay the confiscation order.
McPhie diverted money from the business, which supplies equipment for North Sea oil and gas projects, to fund her lifestyle.
She bought an £80,000 Range Rover, and spent more than £60,000 on a new garage and driveway, £52,000 on a kitchen and £30,000 on a summer house in her garden.
McPhie had previously been given 300 hours of community service 16 years ago for stealing £250,000 from previous employers.

Summary:


A group calling itself "the IRA" has said it murdered the Northern Ireland prison officer David Black.

Article: The issue has put European governments in a spin: forcing a policy U-turn in Denmark, new legislation in the Netherlands and an agonised debate in Germany.
Analysts say early marriage is often carried out in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey by families trying to protect girls from poverty or sexual exploitation. Elsewhere, poor families might marry off their young daughters in exchange for dowries.
The question is one of rights and protections - but which? When authorities stop minors cohabiting with their older spouses, are they combating child abuse or breaking up (often already traumatised) families?
Depending on where you go in Europe, you'll find a radically different range of responses to the issue.
Denmark's response has swung first one way and then the other.
In February, Integration Minister Inger Stojberg vowed to act after a review found dozens of cases of girls living with older men in asylum seekers' accommodation - which the minister called "totally unacceptable".
Couples would require "exceptional reasons" to live together below the age of 18 (the legal age for marriage in Denmark) and no cohabitation would be allowed whatsoever if one party was below 15.
But separation reportedly prompted two migrants under 18 to attempt suicide.
The policy was reversed earlier this week - with children as young as 14 reunited with their husbands - after the issue was raised with the Danish Immigration Service (DIS) by lawmaker Josephine Fock.
"It is completely outrageous. We are talking about people who have fled to Denmark who are being split from each other. Some of them have children together and investigating individual [asylum] cases takes an unbelievably long time," Ms Fock told Metroxpress news service.
The DIS cited Denmark's "international obligations" as the trigger for its policy change, concluding that enforcing separate living quarters would violate the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to...

Summary: Should a 14-year-old married girl who migrates to Europe be viewed as a child - or a spouse?
###
Article: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels advanced into government-held western districts overnight but were pushed back by Wednesday morning.
The battle was the most intense in Aleppo for more than a year, it added.
Later, the US said an agreement has been reached with Russia to extend a truce in Syria to include Aleppo.
The Syrian military confirmed it would observe a 48-hour ceasefire in the city.
A surge in fighting in Aleppo in the past two weeks has killed almost 300 people.
The nationwide cessation of hostilities brokered in late February by the US and Russia, which back opposing sides in the war, is close to collapse.
A coalition of rebel groups fighting under the name "Fatah Halab" (Aleppo Conquest) launched the assault on the government's defensive lines in the west of the city on Tuesday by detonating a tunnel bomb, the AFP news agency reported.
Intense gun battles, air strikes and artillery attacks went on through Tuesday night. Intermittent clashes continued on Wednesday.
Activists also reported that government warplanes carried out more than 20 air strikes in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta outside Damascus, after a freeze in fighting declared by the government around the capital expired.
On Wednesday, the US State Department announced that an extension to the cessation of hostilities had been agreed with Russia on Tuesday.
"Since this went into effect today at 00:01 (local time; 21:01 GMT on Tuesday) in Damascus, we have seen an overall decrease in violence in these areas, even though there have been reports of continued fighting in some locations," a US statement said.
Al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate that is allied to a number of rebel groups, is excluded from the cessation of hostilities.
The government and its ally Russia say only al-Nusra positions in Aleppo are being targeted, but the opposition and the US accuse them of indiscriminately attacking civilians and rebels abiding by the cessation of hostilities.
UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland complained later on Wednesday that the...

Summary: Dozens of people are reported to have been killed in fierce clashes between rebel groups and government forces in the divided Syrian city of Aleppo.
###
Article: The robot fired its ChemCam laser at a tennis-ball-sized stone lying about 2.5m away on the ground.
The brief but powerful burst of light from the instrument vaporised the surface of the rock, revealing details of its basic chemistry.
This was just target practice for ChemCam, proving it is ready to begin the serious business of investigating the geology of the Red Planet.
It is part of a suite of instruments on the one-tonne robot, which landed two weeks ago in a deep equatorial depression known as Gale Crater.
Over the course of one Martian year, Curiosity will try to determine whether past environments at its touchdown location could ever have supported life.
The US-French ChemCam instrument will be a critical part of that investigation, helping to select the most interesting objects for study.
The inaugural target of the laser was a 7cm-wide rock dubbed "Coronation" (previously N165).
It had no particular science value, and was expected to be just another lump of ubiquitous Martian basalt, a volcanic rock.
Its appeal was the nice smooth face it offered to the laser.
ChemCam zapped it with 30 pulses of infrared light during a 10-second period.
Begin exploring Mars
Each pulse delivered to a tiny spot more than a million watts of power for about five billionths of a second.
The instrument observed the resulting spark through a telescope; the component colours would have told scientists which atomic elements were present.
"We got a great spectrum of Coronation - lots of signal," said ChemCam principal investigator Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.
"Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it's pay-off time."
One aspect being considered by the team is whether the signal changed slightly as the laser burrowed through any exterior layers that might have coated Coronation.
"Coatings can tell you about, say, the weather or what has happened to a rock through the eons," Dr Wiens told the BBC last week.
"We will look at...

Summary: Nasa's Curiosity rover has zapped its first Martian rock.
###
Article: The Offshore Contractors Association (OCA) and the Unite union have struck a deal over holiday entitlement and rota changes.
On Friday, Unite, the UK's biggest offshore union, said the agreement brought an end to a prolonged dispute.
Following a consultative ballot, more than 50% of members voted to accept the offer.
The deal is for improved holiday entitlement and a joint review of workers' shift rotations.
Bill Murray, chief executive of the Offshore Contractors' Association, said: "The OCA has listened to the union's concerns about the potential impact of equal time rotas on health and safety and work-life balance.
"At the same time, union officials and shop stewards understood the need to take action together to reduce costs and become more efficient if we are to prevent installations closing and jobs being lost.
"OCA member companies have committed to monitoring and quarterly reporting on the effects on health and safety and work life balance of equal time rotas.
"We have also clarified the situation regarding holidays, stating that employees will be entitled to request one rotation off from work time in each holiday year and that such requests will not be reasonably refused."
Unite's regional officer Tommy Campbell said: "What our oil and gas sector urgently requires now is a genuine co-operation between government, industry and the offshore trade unions to respond to this ongoing crisis, alleviating the pressure on the industry while protecting employment rights. "

Summary: An agreement has been reached between a union and contractors over conditions for offshore contractors.
###
Article: The 20-part series, based on the books of Charles Dickens, started on Boxing Day with five million viewers but it fell to an average of two million.
The brainchild of former EastEnders' writer Tony Jordan, the drama brought together characters from books such as Oliver Twist, Bleak House and Great Expectations.
A BBC spokeswoman said the cancellation had been a "difficult" decision.
"We are incredibly proud of Dickensian and would like to thank all those involved in such an ambitious series.
"We sometimes have to make difficult decisions to make room for new shows and it won't be returning for a second series."
The show starred Stephen Rea as Inspector Bucket from Bleak House trying to solve the murder of Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol, played by Peter Firth.
The cast also included Tuppence Middleton as a young Miss Havisham from Great Expectations and Caroline Quentin as Mrs Bumble from Oliver Twist.
But viewers complained about the lack of a fixed time slot in the schedules for the programme.
Before the series aired Jordan said he had already scripted 60 episodes and was banking on the BBC commissioning more, pointing out that Dickens created in excess of 2,000 characters and he had only used 30.
Jordan, managing director of Red Planet Pictures who made the drama, admitted he was "disappointed" that they would not be making a second series.
"We are hugely proud of what we achieved in the first series of Dickensian and would like to thank everyone who helped us create a truly special and unique drama."

Summary: BBC One's big-budget drama Dickensian has been cancelled after one series.
###
Article: He was shot as he drove to work on the M1 in County Armagh on 1 November.
The new paramilitary group is believed to have been formed from an amalgamation of previously disparate dissident republican organisations.
In a statement issued to the Belfast-based newspaper, the Irish News, the group said it killed him "to protect and defend" republican prisoners.
Mr Black was driving to work at Maghaberry Prison, Northern Ireland's high security jail, when he was attacked and killed.
There is an on-going dispute at the prison, where 41 dissident republican prisoners are detained.
Many of them are refusing to wash in protest at strip searches, and in a bid to secure political status.
Mr Black, a 52-year-old father of two, was the first prison officer to be murdered in Northern Ireland in almost 20 years.
A new organisation calling itself the IRA was formed during the summer, bringing together the Real IRA, Republican Action Against Drugs, and a group of non-aligned republicans - a number of whom are believed to be based in the Craigavon area of County Armagh.

Summary:


A collapse in the global price paid for recycled waste has cost Welsh councils more than £1m in lost income.

Article: But this is not 2012, and this is not the Brownlee brothers. A couple of miles down the road from where Alistair and Jonny now live (in separate houses), history is repeating in a friendship that has become almost familial in its closeness.
In one bedroom, 2013 world champion Non Stanford. In the other, 2014 Commonwealth medallist Vicky Holland.
And that is almost all that comes between them. This is not just a story of cooking duties shared, the same swim sessions or mutual running and biking routes. The two have reached the ultimate relationship benchmark: finishing each other's sentences.
Take, for example, the topic of working together in races, and the habit of their male counterparts of shouting and swearing at those saving energy in others' slipstreams.
Stanford: "I'll get frustrated with people who aren't working, but I'm not as vocal as the boys. I don't think the best way to encourage someone is to be nasty to them..."
Holland: "…especially in the girls' race."
Stanford: "It's more, 'That's awesome, keep coming through.'"
Holland: "It's knowing how to coax those girls into something, rather than forcing them..."
Stanford: "…whereas with men you can peer-pressure them by calling them names..."
Holland: "…whereas that doesn't work with girls."
Stanford: "You have to think of the best way to get the whole group to work together."
Olympic years bring both spectacular sporting opportunity and unparalleled pressures. In 2012 the contrasting fitness and character of the Brownlees put a recurring strain on the brothers' relationship.
Alistair, relaxed and laissez-faire, could inadvertently wind up Jonny by getting up for early-morning swim training at the last possible minute. Jonny could annoy Alistair by sitting in their shared car with the engine running while he waited.
Stanford and Holland, both automatic selections for Rio, are different in that they are more alike.
One may hail from Swansea, the other from Gloucester. Holland is three years older. As triathletes, preparing to race this weekend in...

Summary: It's a familiar tale: two of the world's best triathletes, living together in the same small house just north of Leeds, training together three times a day, going into an Olympics as both the closest of allies and the biggest of rivals.
###
Article: In a communique on Saturday, the global lender said it would review the resources it had available to tackle the crisis.
The statement added that eurozone nations would do "whatever necessary" to resolve Europe's debt crisis.
Following the statement, UK chancellor George Osborne said there was "no plan" for a Greek default.
However, the communique, issued during a meeting between G20 finance ministers, the IMF and the World Bank, did not give specifics on whether extra funds would be available to the global fund.
"Our lending capacity of almost $400 billion looks comfortable today but that pales in comparison with the potential financing needs of vulnerable countries and crisis bystanders," said IMF managing director Christine Lagarde in an action plan presented to the fund's policy steering panel.
The IMF's statement also called for governments to take steps to shore up the banking system.
By Stephanie FlandersEconomics editor, BBC News
Read Stephanie's blog
Robinson: Britain out of Europe
Will China rescue the West?
Banks holding large amounts of European sovereign debt have come under pressure from investors concerned about losses if those debts are not repaid.
"Advanced economies will ensure that banks have strong capital positions and access to adequate funding," said the communique.
The IMF, it said, would develop mechanisms to assist troubled financial institutions working across national borders.
Mr Osborne said eurozone members had agreed on the need to take decisive action to tackle the crisis.
Speaking in Washington, the chancellor said allowing Greece to default on its debts was not one of the proposals.
"No-one here has put forward a plan for that," said Mr Osborne.
The weekend meeting comes after another week of volatility on the world's share markets.
In Europe, the main share indexes in London, Paris and Frankfurt all fell about 4% over the week.
The IMF statement follows a similar communique from the G20 group of leading economies on Friday.
Make your way through the maze of Greece's debt...

Summary: The IMF says it will take decisive action to tackle the eurozone debt crisis and support the global economy.
###
Article: It begins with a question - where is the next generation of curry chefs going to come from - and ends in with another - would leaving the EU save your local Indian from closing?
Currently two or three curry restaurants are shutting every week.
Now, you may think you know the answer to where Indian chefs come from. If so think again.
For decades your "Indian" - whether a chicken tikka masala or late night vindaloo - was almost certainly cooked by a chef from Bangladesh or, perhaps, someone whose father was.
Not any more though. The voices you hear in a growing number of kitchens above the noise of the chopping and the sizzling are the voices of East Europeans - in particular Romanians.
The reason is that tougher immigration rules mean it simply costs too much for most restaurants to bring new chefs over here.
White thug poster aimed at ethnic minority voters
Polls reveal divided nation
Ethnic minorities could be key, says UKIP
A decade or so ago a curry chef would earn around Â£15,000 a year. Now, a restaurant has to pay almost double that as well as jumping a series of complex bureaucratic hurdles to persuade the Home Office to allow them to bring in a chef from abroad.
"Abroad" means, of course, not from outside the UK but outside the EU.
Pasha Khandakar, the president of the Bangladesh Caterers Association, told me that this was an "immigration double standard".
"We've been told by British ministers to import European Union people," he said, pointing to a "language problem, a culture problem and a smell problem." He contends that Eastern European workers dislike the smell of curries.
"We have to give chance for everyone in this world who's fit for these jobs - not for their colour, not for their geographical identity."
"Why should it be easier and cheaper to hire a Romanian to work in a curry house than a Bangladeshi?" many British Asians ask.
Why, indeed, should it be so easy for Eastern Europeans to bring their families to live with them when it is now so much harder than it once was for the families of...

Summary: A pinch of cardamom, a little coriander and a smattering of cinnamon - all ingredients not just in a great British curry but in a political row that's been bubbling up in the kitchens of Indian restaurants up and down the country.
###
Article: Zahid Hussain, 29, filled the appliance with shrapnel and made "improvised igniters" from the festive decorations.
CCTV shown to the jury in Birmingham showed him climbing down a storm drain yards from the West Coast Mainline.
He became radicalised reading books and websites in his bedroom.
In the days running up to his arrest Hussain had made repeated visits to a section of the main high speed train line that links London to Birmingham, which the prosecution said was to research a possible attack.
The defendant had tried to build "a number of explosive devices", including a pressure-cooker bomb and fairy-light igniters.
He also attempted to create a remote-control "initiator" for a device by modifying a wireless doorbell, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
The court was told a mistake in the building of the IED meant it would not have exploded, but that his intention had been to cause "devastation".
He was arrested on 9 August 2015 after reports of a man carrying a hammer and behaving suspiciously near his home in Alum Rock, Birmingham.
After being taken to a police station, officers found handwritten recipes for explosives, a modified fairy light and a hand-drawn map showing a drainage chamber.
At his home, they found an "improvised laboratory" and four allegedly viable igniters fashioned from Christmas lights.
They also discovered books that contained instructions on sabotage and guerrilla warfare tactics. A page on how to derail a train had been marked.
His computer showed he had an interest in so-called Islamic State and events in Syria.
"In his own words he had become 'bedroom radicalised' - turned into a radical by material he had accessed in his own bedroom," prosecution QC Annabel Darlow told the court.
Police said Hussain, who was estranged from his wife and two children, had been acting strangely and suspiciously in the months leading up to his arrest.
"He became withdrawn and isolated from his family and spent hours both day and night on his computer, where he bought most of the items he used to...

Summary: A man who planned to target a railway line with a homemade bomb of fairy lights and a pressure cooker has been found guilty of preparing for an act of terrorism.
###
Article: To be clear, there will be no English-style academies, no grammar schools or selection on the basis of academic ability.
What may change significantly is the role of councils in the system.
In many respects, the school system is a national service which Scotland's 32 local authorities are entrusted to deliver.
The government has no intention of removing schools from council control - the question is more what powers councils may retain.
The presumption in this review will be to give as much power as possible to schools and head teachers.
If any power lies at a higher level, the case will need to be made for it.
As well as devolving powers to schools, new regional boards will help schools in different council areas work together.
The question is what actual powers and practical responsibilities councils will still have once these changes take effect.
For instance, schools may have more control over their budgets, how many teachers to have or what means to use to try to raise attainment.
Because teachers' terms and conditions of employment are nationally agreed, it might be argued that the new regional bodies - not councils - should actually employ teachers.
All those issues are likely to be raised in the coming months.
The direct impact on parents and learners may be less obvious - much would depend on the practical decisions made by newly-empowered schools.
However, an important question will be how to ensure that schools remain accountable to parents and the wider local community.
The Scottish Conservatives asked whether schools could be given the power to "opt out" of local government control - a power which they do not currently have.
It would not be unreasonable to speculate over just what "local government control" will actually mean once the impact of this review is being felt in practice.
Councils will still be major stakeholders in schools. But their role could be very different to the one they've had in Scotland for the past century.

Summary: The moderate language and conciliatory tone of John Swinney masks the fact that truly radical change could be coming to the way Scottish schools are governed.
###
Article: Six authorities have told BBC Wales a meltdown in waste markets has hit their budgets.
Pembrokeshire council has seen the price it gets for steel drop by 88% over the year - while Flintshire has seen the price for plastics halved.
Experts say a slump in oil prices, cheap steel imports, and China's economic slowdown are to blame.
"We try to play the markets as best we can," Harvey Mitchell, the waste services manager for Flintshire, said.
"It makes it difficult when we do have a drop in issues we can't control, such as the global price of oil, or when larger countries flood the European market with steel."
Flintshire has been celebrating a record year for recycling household waste - up to 58% of everything thrown away now ends up at its waste recover facility in Buckley.
"But while we've seen an increase in the amount of material we've collected, we've actually seen a drop in the income because of the market prices," Mr Mitchell said.
Recycled waste netted the council £537,000 in revenue in 2015/16, but this represented a drop of 45% in the expected income - more than £400,000 in lost cash.
The pattern has been repeated in Pembrokeshire, where £360,000 has been wiped off the council's expected income, while four other councils saw a combined drop of £335,000.
"This is an issue which is impacting upon Wales as a whole, not just Pembrokeshire," a council official there said.
"Fortunately quotes for the coming months are starting to look more positive with prices starting to increase."
The impact on most of the other Welsh councils which responded to BBC Wales has been minimal, as they said are tied into long term contracts dealing with their recycling services.
But one academic expert said authorities and the public in Wales will need to refocus as they face ever increasing targets on recycling.
By 2025 Welsh authorities are being asked to recycle 70% of waste - by 2050, it should be 100%.
"Waste prevention is what this is all about," Rebecca Colley-Jones, from Bangor University's Sustainability Lab, said.
"It's...

Summary:


Elderly Germans may have to keep working until the age of 69 if a Bundesbank proposal is adopted.

Article: Bob Blackman MP said it was a "national disgrace" that a single person should have to sleep rough.
His private member's bill aims to reform the law to make sure more people get help before losing their home.
A former housing minister had warned that councils would need more funding to fulfil the commitment.
As-it-happened: Homelessness debate
The well-attended debate saw MPs from different parties broadly support the private member's bill.
It passed its first Parliamentary hurdle in the Commons on Friday when it was approved by MPs without any votes against it. The Homelessness Reduction Bill will now go forward for detailed scrutiny.
Communities and Local Government Minister Marcus Jones reiterated the government's "full and unfettered support" for the Homelessness Reduction Bill, adding that the government would fund the extra costs to councils arising from the changes it proposes.
Conservative MP Mr Blackman's bill amends the 1996 Housing Act to change the definition of being "threatened with homelessness", obliging councils to assess people at risk of homelessness at an earlier stage.
Currently the threat of homelessness is defined as beginning 28 days before a person is likely to become homeless.
The bill would extend that period to 56 days, giving people longer to seek help from their local authority.
It would also oblige councils to offer support in finding accommodation for people who become homeless for a further 56 days.
The categories of people eligible for council support would also be expanded, in a move away from the current focus on "priority housing lists" based on applicants' vulnerabilities.
Harrow East MP Mr Blackman called for a "culture change in councils", moving their priorities from "crisis management" to a pro-active approach in preventing homelessness.
He said he had looked at the experience of the Welsh Assembly, which introduced similar measures in 2015 and had since seen a 69% reduction in the number of households receiving homelessness duty.
For Labour, shadow housing secretary...

Summary: The government has pledged its "full and unfettered" support for a bill that would force councils in England to do more to tackle homelessness.
###
Article: James Greenwood, Green Party candidate, said he was "fed up with the constant sell-off threat" to the woodland.
Conservative's Mark Harper and Liberal Democrat's Chris Coleman agreed the forest should remain publicly-owned.
Labour's Steve Parry-Hearn wanted legal protection while UKIP's Steve Stanbury said it was a "precious resource".
The five parliamentary candidates had been asked about the leasing of forest land when they took part in a BBC Gloucestershire radio debate on Wednesday.
Mr Greenwood referred to a holiday company which he said had been given a 125-year lease for a piece of land.
He said: "We have to see a moratorium on land being disposed in the forest and stop these long leases."
He claimed a lease could be traded and said it was "effectively a sell-off".
Mr Harper said: "It's very important to develop tourism - getting more people to come to the Forest of Dean and spending money and developing local jobs is a very good thing and should be encouraged."
He said the forest should be kept in "public ownership".
Mr Parry-Hearn said he was against long leases adding: "We could find ourselves in a position where there is privatisation because that lease could then be sold on."
Lib Dem Chris Coleman said: "When you're talking about a 125-year lease, that is longer than any of us in this room can imagine - that is a sell-off."
He said he was "wholeheartedly against privatisation".
UKIP's Steve Stanbury said the management of the forest should be "done in a balanced way".
He said: "We need to make sure the business community, on which so many livelihoods depend, is actually engaged and that the forest works for everybody."
The candidates for the constituency are:
Christopher Coleman -  Liberal Democrat
James Greenwood - Green
Mark Harper - Conservative
Steve Parry-Hearn - Labour
Steve Stanbury - UKIP

Summary: The Forest of Dean needs to be protected for future generations, according to the constituency's election candidates.
###
Article: Hundreds of slippery fish scattered all over a busy road in Scotland.
A van shed its load of fish as it was making a delivery.
Drivers faced long delays as they were cleared up.
It was pretty smelly though.

Summary: This is an unusual scene.
###
Article: There is, however, a growing chorus from the conservative movement's libertarian wing that connects the perceived overreaction by a militarised local law enforcement to their critique of the heavy-handed power of government.
"The state is big and powerful and violent and can hurt you, whether it's the FDA, the state prosecutor or the local police force," writes Hot Air blog's Mary Katharine Ham, concisely summarising the gist of this libertarian argument.
Breitbart's John Nolte puts it a bit more sharply: "The media hate police but without them, who will ultimately force us to buy ObamaCare and confiscate our guns?"
On Wednesday night Congressman Justin Amash, a libertarian-leaning Republican embraced by the grass-roots Tea Party movement, tweeted that the news from Ferguson was "frightening", asking: "Is this a war zone or a US city? Gov't escalates tensions w/military equipment & tactics."
One of the leading figures in today's libertarian movement, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, offers his take in an opinion piece for Time magazine on Thursday afternoon:
"When you couple this militarisation of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury - national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture - we begin to have a very serious problem on our handsâ€¦
"Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous, or false, security. This has been a cause I have championed for years, and one that is at a near-crisis point in our country."
Reason magazine's Ed Krayewski builds on this theme of a militarised police force as the spear-point of an intrusive government, causing more harm than good:
"What's happening in Ferguson certainly looks like a counter-insurgency," he writes. "If cops keep it up long enough, some residents might respond with an insurgency. Around the world, insurgencies are fueled by unemployed young men with few prospects. It's the way things like this tend to work,...

Summary: Much of the commentary on the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer has been dominated by liberal outrage over what some see as racial injustice.
###
Article: Lee Jefferies-Jones, 31, stabbed three people in the attack on a street in Yeovil, Somerset, last June.
Jefferies-Jones, who was told he would serve at least 10 years, shouted "I'm going to kill 20 people" as he went on the rampage, Taunton Crown Court heard.
The attacks only stopped when one of his victims overpowered him and held him until police arrived.
Jefferies-Jones, of no fixed address, had already pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted murder, one of wounding with intent and one of attempted wounding at an earlier hearing.
The court heard he was suffering from mental health problems, had a personality disorder and was addicted to drugs when the the attack took place in King Arthur's Drive.
Judge Jamie Tabor QC said Jefferies-Jones was a "danger to the public".

Summary: A man who carried out a series of unprovoked knife attacks on members of the public has been jailed for life.
###
Article: It says Berlin should consider raising the retirement age to that level by 2060, from around 65 at the moment.
The central bank says that otherwise the country may struggle to honour its pension commitments.
It points out that the state pension system is in good financial health at present, but will come under pressure in coming decades.
The Bundesbank says that as baby-boomers - those born in the post-World War Two period - retire, there will be fewer younger workers to replace them.
The retirement age for Germans is set to rise gradually to 67 by 2030.
However, the bank believes that from 2050 this increase will not be enough for the German government to keep state pensions at their target level of at least 43% of the average income.
It is therefore proposing pushing the retirement age up to 69.
"Further changes are unavoidable to secure the financial sustainability (of the state pension system)," the Bundesbank said in its monthly report.
But German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said they stood by retirement at 67.
"Retirement at 67 is a sensible and necessary measure given the demographic development in Germany. That's why we will implement it as we agreed - step by step," he added.

Summary:


A coroner has vowed to raise concerns about weekend staffing levels at a hospital where a grandmother died after a routine operation.

Article: Experiments in mice found that the gene, Katnal1, was vital for the final stages of making sperm.
The authors of
          a study in PLos Genetics
 said a drug which interrupts Katnal1 could be a reversible contraceptive.
A fertility expert said there was "certainly a need" for such a drug.
Contraception in men is largely down to condoms or a vasectomy.
Researchers at the Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh were investigating the causes of male infertility.
They randomly altered the genetic code of mice to see which became infertile. They then traced the mutations which led to infertility, which led them to Katnal1.
It contains the blueprints for a protein which is important in cells which support the development of sperm. Without the protein, sperm do not fully form and the body disposes of them.
Scientists hope they will be able to perform a similar trick in humans to stop sperm developing, without causing lasting damage.
One of the researchers Dr Lee Smith said: "If we can find a way to target this gene in the testes, we could potentially develop a non-hormonal contraceptive.
"The important thing is that the effects of such a drug would be reversible because Katnal1 only affects sperm cells in the later stages of development, so it would not hinder the early stages of sperm production and the overall ability to produce sperm.
He said it would be "relatively difficult" to do as the protein lives inside cells, however, he said there was "potential" to find something else that protein worked with, which might be an easier target.
Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said there was "certainly a need" for a non-hormonal contraceptive for men and that this had been a "Holy Grail" of research for many years.
He added: "The key in developing a non-hormonal contraceptive for men is that the molecular target needs to be very specific for either sperm or other cells in the testicle which are involved in sperm production.
"If they are not, then such...

Summary: It may be possible to develop a new male contraceptive pill after researchers in Edinburgh identified a gene critical for the production of healthy sperm.
###
Article: The swarm, which gathered on the Mitsubishi Outlander in Castle Square, Haverfordwest, on Sunday, was spotted by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park ranger Tom Moses.
He managed to reach some beekeepers who rounded up the insects.
Mr Moses said the sight of the swarm was "spectacular".
The 41-year-old said he was travelling through the town at about 17:00 BST when he spotted a "big brown splodge" on the back of the vehicle.
"It was quite spectacular to see. There was a lot of people in town and when they were coming past they were really amazed by it, cars [were] slowing down and people [were] taking pictures of it."
Mr Moses, of Haverfordwest, said he often talks to people about the struggles bees face as a result of pesticides and habitat destruction.
"I was a little bit concerned, with it being in the middle of town, on a Sunday, outside a pub, that someone might do something stupid and get hurt or do something stupid and hurt the bees," he said.
Two beekeepers helped to round up the swarm, after Mr Moses contacted the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association.
And despite being stung while assisting, Mr Moses said he was glad to have intervened.
"At the national park, we like people to be aware of how important bees are and how people should be looking after them," he added.

Summary: A car became the buzz of a Pembrokeshire town after hundreds of bees swarmed on its boot.
###
Article: Media playback is not supported on this device
The former England batsman was forced to retire in April at the age of 26.
He was diagnosed with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), similar to the condition which affected footballer Fabrice Muamba.
"At the bottom of a very steep hill, I can't wait to see the view from the top!" he wrote on Twitter.
The condition means Taylor can no longer undergo vigorous exercise.
Following initial treatment, he had worn what he described as a "life vest" - an external defibrillator - to prevent any recurrence of his heart problems while he waited for his implantable cardiac defibrillator to be inserted.
Taylor played his seventh and final Test against South Africa at Centurion in January.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.

Summary: James Taylor has had an operation to fit an internal defibrillator as part of the treatment for a heart condition that ended his professional career.
###
Article: The figures for G4S were disclosed after a Freedom of Information request.
The company runs three removal centres and until recently escorted detainees who were being deported.
A G4S spokesman said it took the complaints seriously, but the level of substantiated complaints was extremely low and they were of a minor nature.
The detailed figures provided to the BBC show that G4S received 773 complaints from immigration detainees in 2010, 240 more than during the previous year.
Almost 640 of the cases were later found to be unsubstantiated and almost 130 were logged as fully or partially substantiated.
The most common complaint concerned lost property or poor communication. There were 48 claims of assault, three of which were upheld. Two complaints of racism were partially substantiated, but six were dismissed.
Overall, the figures released to the BBC show there were 1,497 complaints between December 2008 and April 2011. Eight out of 10 complaints related to the quality of services, rather than allegations of staff misconduct.
The figures show that the proportion of complaints substantiated has fallen over the three years. During the same period, approximately 65,000 people passed through centres run by G4S.
More than half of all the complaints were made at Brook House, near Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, which holds convicted foreign criminals facing deportation.
G4S is one of the largest and most important companies running government services.
It came under the spotlight last year when Jimmy Mubenga, an Angolan detainee, died after being restrained by three guards on a flight. Three men remain on bail while police investigate.
Alongside Brook House, G4S also runs Tinsley House near Gatwick and Dungavel House in South Lanarkshire.
Figures recently disclosed in Parliament show the company has contracts worth £4.6bn with four government departments, including the Home Office and Ministry of Justice.
It will soon take on the government's family accommodation unit near Gatwick.
A spokesman for G4S said: "Anyone...

Summary: A private security company responsible for holding immigration detainees received more than 700 complaints last year, the BBC has learned.
###
Article: The US-based firm said it needed more time to work on the system's controllers, which feature two haptic-feedback trackpads.
The announcement is also likely to impact the 14 third-party manufacturers planning to sell their own Steam Machine hardware.
However, one industry watcher suggested Valve had taken the right decision.
"It is targeting a very demanding demographic with the Steam Machine platform, and the controller is one of the key features designed to address the impression that PC gaming can be slightly inaccessible," said Ed Barton, a gaming analyst at consultants Ovum.
"It's a very ambitious concept to try to replicate the accuracy of a mouse input with the controller's two circular touchpads - and if it doesn't work, the platform would likely struggle to get off the ground."
Valve is best known for developing games including Half Life, Dota 2 and Left 4 Dead, as well as having created Steam, a service that includes the bestselling marketplace for PC games and contains vibrant community forums.
The company, based in Bellevue, Washington state, announced last September that it also intended to create its own games-focused Linux-based operating system, called SteamOS, in addition to a few hundred prototype machines to test it on.
It said the machine was intended to be plugged into a TV and used with its new controller that would provide vibration feedback to deliver "in-game information about speed, boundaries, thresholds, textures, action confirmations, or any other events about which game designers want players to be aware".
The idea, it said, was to take PC gaming into the living room in 2014 - a place previously dominated by consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Others would ultimately make the machines sold to the public.
However, a blog by developer Eric Hope has now asked consumers to be patient while the firm continued to work on the project.
"We're now using wireless prototype controllers to conduct live playtests, with everyone from industry professionals to die-hard gamers to casual...

Summary: Valve has delayed the launch of its Steam Machine video games PCs until next year at the earliest.
###
Article: Margaret Gleeson, 70, died two days after a hernia operation at Wigan's Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in October 2015.
Concluding an inquest into her death, Simon Jones ruled out neglect and said she died due to a rare complication.
But he said he wanted to highlight concerns raised during the hearing.
Mr Jones said he would write to both the hospital and the Department of Health about the issue of patient safety at weekends.
However, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust said it did not believe weekend staffing levels were to blame.
"The trust does not believe that Mrs Gleeson's death was the result of any difference between the resources available and services provided at the weekend and those provided on weekdays," a spokesman said.
"The trust already complies with national guidelines in relation to weekend working and is actively involved in an ongoing pilot scheme investigating the possible benefits which might be derived from seven day working."
The trust said its own investigation had revealed shortcomings in "some aspects" of Mrs Gleeson's care, for which it offered its "sincere apologies".
The inquest, sitting at Bolton Coroner's Court, heard medics believed Mrs Gleeson's operation had been a success, but it was later discovered that internal tissue had been torn during the procedure.
Her condition then deteriorated.
When questioned about weekend staffing during the hearing, the trust's Dr Sadasivam Loganathan agreed it was "a major concern".
He said: "You don't give the same attention as the patient deserves."
Mrs Gleeson's son, Peter Gleeson, said: "I think if she'd had the operation on a Monday or any other time in the week it would have possibly been a different outcome."
Her daughter Julie Barnes added: "The surgeon himself said if she'd have been reviewed and it had been picked up on the Saturday, it would have been a totally different outcome."
Stephen Jones, of Leigh Day solicitors, said the family were "disappointed" the coroner did not find neglect had been a factor.
"Whether the...

Summary: